Sirius Trouble
by JustLikeMagic
Summary: Sirius has some fun in Potions class, but he didn't quite forsee the consequences.


Lily Evans sneezed loudly in the front of the Potions classroom. In the back, Sirius Black sniggered.

James gave him a startled look. "What did you do?" he asked, worried.

"I replaced her crushed beetle powder with pepper," Sirius replied casually.

"You did _what!_" James whispered loudly.

"Gentlemen," Professor Slughorn called from his desk at the front of the room, "I understand that neither one of you find Potions class to be the most fascinating part of your lives, but I would suggest you pretend that you enjoy it. The Sleeping Draught is going to be part of your O.W.L.s."

"Yes, sir!" Sirius replied, far too enthusiastically. Professor Slughorn frowned but said nothing more. He struggled out of his seat and began making his way around the room, inspecting the students' potions. On Sirius' other side, Peter was working up a sweat, he was concentrating so thoroughly on his potion. Remus wasn't there; the full moon had taken place the night before.

"Look! Miss Evans has done it, and perfectly, I might add!" Professor Slughorn beamed at Lily, then continued his praise. "Notice that her Sleeping Draught is the exact shade of sky blue that is required before she adds the crushed beetles powder. Go on, Lily!"

Lily smiled as she carefully poured a scoop of pepper into the potion - and it exploded. The classroom was immediately enveloped in thick black smoke that obscured everything from view.

"And then, when Slughorn came into the hallway with us, he was covered in soot!" Sirius finished his recounting of the tale to Remus between gasps of laughter. He, James, and Peter were visiting their friend in the hospital wing and were all seated around Remus' bed. Professor Slughorn had demanded that the entire fifth year Potions class go up to see Madam Pomfrey immediately. Several students, including Lily, had been overcome with an inability to stop yawning and drooping eyelids. Madam Pomfrey quickly fixed them up and had given them each a bar of chocolate. Professor Slughorn, too, had come up to the hospital wing, having used a spell on himself to eliminate the effects of the ruined potion (and clean the soot off his clothing). He waited impatiently until Lily was no longer feeling sleepy before he grabbed her by the arm and took her to his office.

Remus looked at Sirius incredulously for a moment, then turned his attention to James. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Come on, Prongs," Sirius said, still grinning. "No one got hurt. One day, Lily will look back on this and laugh."

The hospital wing doors flew open with a bang ("Goodness!" cried Madam Pomfrey) and Lily Evans stood in the doorway, fuming. She looked not the least bit sleepy as she pulled her wand and stalked over to Sirius, pointing it threateningly in his face.  
Sirius looked highly affronted. "What?" he exclaimed, feigning bewilderment.

"Detention!" she yelled. "You got me into detention, you despicable -"

"Whoa! I didn't do _anything_!" Sirius argued.

"Oh yes you did, you exchanged my beetle powder for pepper so that I'd mess up the potion!" Lily's green eyes blazed with anger.

"So?" Sirius replied nonchalantly. "You needed humbling, with all those compliments that Slughorn was giving you."

Lily swiftly lowered her wand and looked as though Sirius had slapped her. "_I_ needed humbling?" she asked in a deadly soft voice. "Me, as opposed to you, who can't go two minutes without chasing anything in a skirt, certain that you'll get any woman who breathes? As opposed to you, who spends more time on his hair in the morning than any of the Gryffindor girls?" Lily laughed coldy. "Sirius Black, _grow up_." With those words Lily turned on her heel and swept out of the hospital wing, leaving Sirius staring after her, mouth agape.

The boys had barely enough time to realize what had just happend when Madam Pomfrey came swooping down on them, flapping her arms wildly. "Out! All three of you! You've caused enough disturbances today!" She left them no choice but to scurry out. She slammed the doors behind them.

James was in no hurry to return to the common room. Peter meekly suggested that they all head down to nick some food from the kitchen. Sirius agreed, and the three headed downstairs as though returning to the dungeons. Instead, they turned in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room and stopped in front of a picture of a bowl of fruit. Peter tickled the pear, which giggled and abruptly turned into a doorknob. Sirius opened the portrait, leaving Peter and James to follow.

"Peter," Sirius said lazily, "why don't you go play lookout in the hallway? We don't have the Invisibility Cloak with us, in case you hadn't realized."

Peter was on the verge of reopening the door when James exclaimed, "What is _wrong_ with you, Sirius!"

Slowly, Sirius turned around and looked at James. "What in bloody hell are you talking about?"

"Lily didn't deserve to have that joke played on her!" James burst out, glaring at his best friend. "I've only just finally gotten her to have a decent conversation with me!"

Sirius' expression turned dark. "One girl looks at you, and suddenly you have no loyalty to your friends."

James' eyes widened. "Loyalty? Padfoot, you did that so-called joke all on your own. You've been like this ever since we got back from Christmas holidays, so please, let me know when you're going to start acting like yourself again."

The darkness in Sirius' expression cleared, replaced by a strange dejectedness, a look alien to Sirius' face. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Yeah, well - what?" James ran a hand through his hair, awkwardly surprised.

"You wouldn't understand. My family...it's...I'm just sorry, all right?" Sirius suddenly turned around and left the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" called Peter, but any answer Sirius might have offered was cut off as the portrait closed.


End file.
